(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for operating a system drive using an identification (ID) card. Particularly, this invention makes use of a registered ID card for protecting the information of the system and reduces power consumption through controlling a power on/off condition of the system.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
In connection with FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings annexed hereto, there is described below a prior art apparatus and methods using the system drive in the context of a computer.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional drive.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, the power supplying operation in the prior art is performed in such a way that AC power is supplied to an SMPS (Switching Mode Power Supply) 2 through a power plug 1. At this time, if a user presses a power switch 5, the power having been supplied to SMPS 2 is supplied to the main board 6, Floppy Disk Drive (FDD) 40, and Hard Disk Drive (HDD) 50 through cables 3, 4, 31, 32, and then operates the system.
However, the present state of this art suffers from some drawbacks:
With one kind of computer system that has been used so far, whoever wants to use that system, can use the system freely just by switching on the system. As a result, keeping secret important information stored in or accessible via the system becomes very difficult.
In order to solve this problem, in another kind of prior art system, drives are equipped with an apparatus to control a power on/off condition of the system with a registered ID card, to protect information.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the second type of prior art system drive the one controlled with an ID card.
As illustrated in FIG. 2, the prior art system drive controlled with an ID card includes:
an ID card 10, which has a password; PA1 an ID card reader 20, which reads the password of the ID card 10; PA1 a keypad 60, which outputs several key signals; PA1 an operation control section 30, which outputs control signals to control all sorts of operations connected to an output terminal of the keypad 60; PA1 a FDD (Floppy Disk Drive) 40, which operates a floppy disk in accordance with applied control signals and which is connected to an output terminal of the operation control section 30; PA1 a HDD (Hard Disk Drive) 50, which operates a hard disk in accordance with applied control signals and which is connected to an output terminal of the operation control section 30; and PA1 a monitor 70, which displays data in accordance with the applied control signals and which is connected to output terminal of the operation control section 30. PA1 an ID card 10, which has a password; PA1 an ID card-reader for outputting an appropriate signal by reading data stored in the ID card; PA1 a power-supply control section for outputting an operation signal to determine the usability of the data stored in the ID card and the data after comparing and determining the set data in case that the data stored in the ID card coincides with the set data; PA1 an auxiliary power-supply for operation of the ID card reader and the power supply control section; and, PA1 a main power supply for supplying the driving power source to operate the system, which is variable according to the driving signals output from the power supply control section. PA1 initializing each of a plurality of using variables and reading the data stored in an inserted ID card when power is applied; PA1 reading the data stored in memories to determine the usability of the inserted ID card; PA1 determining the relation between the data stored in the inserted ID card and a given set of data; and PA1 operating signals to drive the system only if the data stored in the inserted ID card corresponds to the given set of data.
The functions of the prior art system drive controlled with an ID card will now be described.
After power is applied to the system, the operation control section 30 determines if an ID card 10 is inserted. If an ID card is inserted, it determines whether a password is input from the keypad 60. Then a user inputs an appropriate password by operating the keypad 60, and the operation control section 30 transfers that input password to an ID card reader 20. If the ID card reader 20 outputs an appropriate signal to output the password from the operation control section 30, the ID card 10 determines whether the stored password is consistent with a password transferred from the operation control section 30, and outputs the error code to the ID card reader 20 in case both passwords do not coincide with each other. Once an error code is output from the ID card reader, the operation control section 30 displays the occurrence of error (i.e., non-correspondence) on monitor 70 and stops the system. In the above description, once the ID card 10 outputs a specific signal to the ID card reader 20, if the stored password does correspond with that from the operation control section 30, the ID card reader 20 changes the signal to the eligible signal for the operation control section 30 and outputs it to the operation control section 30. After the operation control section 30 reads the booting areas of the FDD 40, the HDD 50, by determining if DOS exists or not, reads a user ID stored in the ID card and a user ID data base stored in the HDD 50 and determines if the appropriate user ID is registered in the PC. In this case, if the user ID is registered, the control section permits the user to use the computer; if the user is not registered, the control section stops the user from using the computer.
The system drive using the ID card may prohibit transmittal of important information through the way of giving the password. In case it can not read that password, it does not allow the use of the system. However, as it reads the ID card only under the power-on state of the whole system, the power consumption for reading the ID card is increased, and, it may have the same disadvantage in regard to power consumption as the computer which has no ID card reader.